Pentagon to become largest shareholder in rare earth miner MP Materials; shares surge 40%

CNBC ^ | July 10, 2025 | Spencer Kimball

[Racketeer]

Key Points: The Defense Department will buy $400 million of preferred stock in MP Materials.

MP Materials owns the only operational rare earth mine in the U.S. at Mountain Pass, California.

It will build a second magnet manufacturing facility in the U.S. with the support of the Pentagon.

**** JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs are providing $1 billion to help finance the manufacturing facility. MP Materials also expects to receive a $150 million loan from the Pentagon to expand its rare earth separation capabilities at Mountain Pass.

[Racketeer]

So it begins. I guess the Pentagon will use our money to buy Lockheed-Martin & General Dynamics next.

Karl Marx is laughing!!

[Red Badger]

Now, how many members of CONGRESS were in on it?.............

[BobL]

“Karl Marx is laughing!!”

I have no clue as to the back story, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the owner of the only supply of Rare Earth in the US was using his monopoly position to try to SCREW OVER US taxpayers...and the government got sick of dealing with him.

[Bookshelf]

Fact Sheet: Alaska Strategic Minerals/Rare Earth Elements
Alaska DNR (.gov)
https://dnr.alaska.gov › commis › priorities › Fact ...
PDF
There are more than 70 known occurrences of rare-earth elements throughout Alaska. Millions of acres of land conveyed to or selected by the state are ...

[grobdriver]

How in the world can the Defense Department buy stock?

[BobL]

“There are more than 70 known occurrences of rare-earth elements throughout Alaska. Millions of acres of land conveyed to or selected by the state are ...”

If we had a decade or two to get the ones that are economically viable started up and into production, then maybe the pentagon wouldn’t have to deal with a monopoly as it’s stuck with today.

[Racketeer]

What a plan. Hey guys, we can use what the taxpayers give us and buy stock. Can you even imagine what we can do when these companies need capital due to inefficiencies related to our management. I love our taxpayers.

Karl Marx is busting a gut, I say!!

[montag813]

In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s investment arm was an early investor in Palantir

[Bookshelf]

Environmentalists for more than a decade have blocked the mining of rare earths on Alaska’s islands north of the state of Washington.

[HYPOCRACY]

Preferred stock is not stock. It’s tier 2 debt.

[BobL]

“Environmentalists for more than a decade have blocked the mining of rare earths on Alaska’s islands north of the state of Washington.”

Thanks, no surprise - and the Neocons were FINE with importing from China as they, I guess, believed that no major power would be dumb enough to fight us. Well, Russia was dumb enough, which is why we’re in the mess that we’re now in with “Rare Earth” (as Trump called it) and MANY, MANY, other materials and piece-parts.

[Carry_Okie]

Mountain Pass, CA is an open pit mine just off I-15 in eastern San Bernardino County with its own interchange for trucking. The facility is about a mile across.

[brent13a]

Karl Marx is busting a gut, I say!!

I would assume the reasoning would be that RARE earth minerals being such a contentious commodity, it could be conceived as a national security issue. Certainly a slippery slope, but do you want China or middle eastern countries to hop in and purchase the only rare earth mineral mine in the US?

Were the government purchasing controlling stock in Walmart or corporate farms, then yeah "Karl Marx". But I don't see this as that.

[brent13a]

Karl Marx is laughing!!

Would Marx have been laughing gleefully (in 1942-1946) when the US Government, the War Department, and the Pentagon snatched up whole swaths of land, building secret towns, the world's largest industrial buildings, then snatched up whole mines' worth of plutonium and uranium?

[Racketeer]

Karl Marx has been laughing from the very day FDR got elected. Is laugh is intensified now!!

[maro]

It’s stock in a legal sense. Has aspects of debt in a financial sense.

[HYPOCRACY]

You aren’t buying shares in the company, so the headline is a lie (shocker). It’s higher in the capital structure than equity but lower than debt.

[Wuli]

Using “security” to start a national government “private” enterprise “national industrial” agenda.

A lesson in how to become the type of government you profess to despise.

[Racketeer]

I merely despise what Karl Marx types appreciate.

[curious7]

Here’s more deatils on what the deal is for those interested: https://www.tipranks.com/news/the-fly/dod-to-receive-30-of-upside-above-110-kg-when-mp-10x-facility-hits-target-thefly?mod=mw_quote_news